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Surrender Dorothy
Plot When a woman is found dead in the trunk of a car, detectives Ed Green and Lennie Briscoe follow a series of street art tags to a college student with whom the woman was having an affair. The victim's father-in-law, also her therapist, hired a private investigator to follow her and take incriminating photographs when he began to learn of the affair. The father was a proponent of surrendered wives as a form of couples therapy, and was concerned that the affair would hurt his professional image and sales of his book, which featured his son and the victim as an example. Jack McCoy and Abbie Carmichael determine that the father used his influence as a therapist to convince the victim to commit suicide, complete with a suicide note, then covered it up to look like a murder. For this, McCoy and Schiff decide to try him for second degree manslaughter. At trial, the father testifies that he did not influence her to commit suicide, but in fact murdered her. Because the state already rested its case, it was too late to charge him with murder using the confession. McCoy used his closing to successfully convince the jury that the father was lying to protect himself, and won the manslaughter conviction. Afterwords, Schiff notes that the father either walked into a conviction on the stand, or bought a relatively light sentence (three years) for a murder. Cast Main cast * Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe * Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green * S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren * Sam Waterston as Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy * Angie Harmon as A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael * Steven Hill as D.A. Adam Schiff Guest cast * Carlo Alban as Ramon Soriano * Doug Barron as Richard Crane * Roger Bart as Alex Hughes * Kelly Cinnante as Kathy Connor * Divina Cook as Reima Montez * Jon Cypher as Harlan Graham * Emilio Delgado as Elias Soriano * Lisa Emery as Gwen Graham * Andersen Gabrych as Kenny Davidson * David Garrison as Richard Billings * Elain R. Graham as Professor Vivian Gage * Richard Joseph Paul as Perry Graham * J.K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda * Steven Skybell as Lance Dickinson * Julia Gibson as Eleanor Carlson * Ben Hauck as Young Man * Joyce Gordon as Trial Judge * Patrick Farrelly as Jury Foreperson * Diana Berry as Featured Jury Member * Gabe Hernandez as Patrol Officer * Gretha Boston as Office Aide * Dustin Leighton as unknown References References Quotes Quotes *Detective Ed Green: The husbands called, they want to get this all settled out with their shrinks. *Lt. Anita Van Buren: Oh, good. One for each of you. *Jack McCoy: This man put all the ingredients together, Adam, we can't just let him walk away when the bomb goes off. * Abbie Carmichael (about Harlan Graham and Dorothy): I wonder what the ethics are of turning a patient into your daughter-in-law. *Harlan Graham: Perry and I have nothing to hide. We're therapists; we believe in the truth. *Lennie Briscoe: Yeah, so do we. But we rarely hear it Background information and notes Background information and notes * The "surrendered spouse" ideas in this episode are based on the controversial book The Surrendered Wife by Laura Doyle. * The episode title is a reference to the movie The Wizard of Oz. Category:L&O episodes